


Symbiosis

by Nyctolovian



Series: Voltron Hurt/Comfort Bingo 2018 [10]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (basically right after Shiro/Kuron comes back to voltron), (for the sake of plot and my sanity) blade of marmora doesnt exist, Alien Biology, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Blood and Violence, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gen, Gore, Hurt/Comfort, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Monsters, Mutual Pining, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Parasites, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post season 3 episode 5, Sharing a Body, Slow Burn, Symbiotic Relationship, Transformation, Whump
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-27
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-08-28 03:53:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 17,279
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16716098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nyctolovian/pseuds/Nyctolovian
Summary: Lance stumbles into the Galran druids’ laboratory and uncovers their experiments and monsters. He barely makes it out with his life - and, unknowingly, with another tangled with it. Now, he has to learn to live with a new permanent resident in his body.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> AT LONG LAST!!! I've been planning this fic for a _long_ time and I've finally worked up the courage to write and post this! I really really hope you guys enjoy this. It's my first long-ish fic?? So I REALLY hope I finish this instead of ditching it or giving up ;-; (please cheer me on)
> 
> Shout out to @oorubixoo, @lunaslovelies and @goodandhorrid on tumblr for helping me to beta-read!! Also, thanks to those who have liked and reblogged my beta request post :")
> 
>  **IMPT things to note:**  
>  \- This is set right after Shiro is found, meaning Keith is still with Voltron as the Black Paladin. This fic goes completely off tangent after that hahaha!  
> \- I could not include several canon plotlines because it'd be too complicated, they are: 1) Lotor 2) Blade of Marmora. So what that means is Haggar is the only big bad (cos Zarkon's dead rn) and Keith does not know of his Galra heritage.

Lance glanced behind as he ran. The druids approached, sweeping through the corridor like dark ghosts.

His legs burned, and his lungs felt like they were going to collapse. He could hear his blood rush and his heart pound. "How much more can I run?"  Lance thought as he skidded round a bend.

“Oh, nonono!”

A solid-looking door loomed at the end of the hallway. It was a dead end.

Lance just had to drop his quiznak-ing bayard, didn’t he? How the hell was he going to defend himself now?

Maybe he could break the door down.

This had better work.

He squeezed his eyes shut in prayer. With all his might, he slammed into the door. It refused to budge. He let out a groan and shoved at it again.

Panic blurred his vision.

Lance punched the buttons at random with shaky hands. “Come on. Come on,” he whimpered through clenched teeth.

He flinched when the alarms blared, and flashing lights bathed the corridor in red.

He jammed his finger at the buttons again. The alarm rang through the corridors a second time. He let out a frustrated yell and kicked the door.

Lance glimpsed over his shoulder to see a druid hand reach over. A blast hit his shoulder, and he crumpled to the floor with a yell.

Strengthless, Lance lay on his side as the druids approached. His vision went dark as he slowly lost consciousness.

But his hearing was the last to fade.

“Voltron cannot be formed anymore, but surely Haggar wouldn’t mind having a new test subject for Project Kuron.”

 

* * *

 

Just a few hours ago, the team had been gathered at the bridge to go over the plan to infiltrate a small Galra base. This mission could reveal major routes used by the Galra Empire while harvesting quintessence and possibly other important information. It was a relatively simple mission, hopefully with no fights involved, but it was going to be rather long.

Lance had originally been excited for the mission. Now, it sounded like a chore. It was definitely a form of torture to squish yourself in one tiny spot for almost an hour, wait for a signal from Pidge, and press a single stupid button — even if Shiro had insisted that he could spend it “finding inner peace in the silence”. Lance wondered if the Shiro, whom they had picked up from the space pod, had swapped souls with Oogway during the months he was MIA or something.

He slumped in his seat as he listened to the instructions that were handed out to everyone else. At some point, he nearly slid off the chair, earning himself a glare from Allura, so he straightened up a little more.

By the time the meeting was ending, he had realised many small things. Like how Pidge alternated between shaking her left and her right leg, and how Hunk had a small smudge of green on his shirt (food goo?), and how the mice seemed to be playing hide and seek, and how Keith had way too much white hair for a guy his age (must be stressful being the new black paladin), and how–

Beep! Beep!

Everyone straightened up at the sound. It was an unknown signal. The team exchanged uneasy looks.

“Pidge,” Shiro said, “could you go check what the signal is?”

“I’m on it.” Pidge hopped into her seat and went straight to work.

Frowning, Keith crossed his arms. “This better not be a distress signal.”

Hunk raised a finger. “Based on all our previous experiences, I can say that whenever there’s something important, there’ll always be something else coming along to complicate the situation for us.”

“It’s a distress signal!” Pidge announced the moment she decrypted the code.

Keith groaned and Hunk sighed.

“Look what you’ve done now, Keith. You totally jinxed it,” Lance said. That earned him a narrow-eyed stare.

“This is terrible timing.” Allura frowned. “Where is it coming from?” she asked.

“It’s… from this planet,” Pidge mumbled as she pointed at a dot on her screen.

Allura and Coran walked over and peered at the screen. Curious, Lance craned his neck to see where Pidge was pointing to, but Keith shoved his head out of the way.

Keith smirked back, teasing mischief behind his purple eyes.

That bastard!

Lance suppressed his smile with a feigned huff of irritation. However, when he was about to shove back, Shiro clicked his tongue from behind, so Lance slowly lowered his arm. Not without giving Keith a playful elbow though.

Keith scowled at him so Lance stuck his tongue out at him.

“Why, isn’t that Regeunde?” Coran said, stopping their roughhousing. “It’s home to Regeunders, small, mild-mannered, cat-like people.”

“I think it is!” Allura cried. With a wave of her hand, the bridge grew dark and a projected map burst from the centre of the room. The princess effortlessly called out the lights with an elegant sweep of her arm. “There it is!” she said, pointing at one of the larger spheres on the map.

Coran leaned forward. “Ah,” he said. “It is from the opposite direction of the course we’re taking. We can’t go back there and make it to the Galra base on time for the next trading cycle.”

“But we need to help them,” Hunk said, his voice strained. “We can’t leave a planet out there helpless.”

Shiro placed a hand on Hunk’s shoulder. “We’re not going to.”

“What will we do though?” Pidge asked. “We’re only going to arrive at the base just in time for our plan to work. The particle barriers around the base aren't going to be deactivated anytime soon after that. We really can’t spare any time.”

“We will split up,” Allura replied. “We can send two lions to scout the planet and investigate.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Keith muttered. “I don’t think we should split up.”

“Are you saying it’s a trap?” Lance asked.

He did that awkward shrug, with his eyes big and his lips in a small pout. “It could be.”

“It could be a trap,” Pidge agreed. “But it could be a real distress signal. I don’t think we should ignore it.”

Keith pursed his lips and crossed his arms. “Yeah, I know.”

Shiro said, “If anything happens, those checking on Regeunde must immediately call for backup.”

Coran nodded. “As for the infiltration plan, it should still proceed smoothly with three lions. This mission is fairly simple even though it may be rather slow. In case anything goes wrong, you can always count on the good ol’ Castle of Lions for backup.”

“Pidge, we need your stealth for the infiltration mission so you should stay on our current mission,” said Shiro, to whom Pidge gave a firm nod.

“If no one minds, can I go scout the planet?” Hunk asked.

“If Hunk’s going, can I go too?” Lance said. “Meeting cat people sounds way better than collecting data from some rusty old port.”

Shiro thought for a while before replying, “Why not?”

With a satisfied grin, Lance threw an arm over Hunk’s shoulder. Hunk lifted a fist, which Lance bumped with his own.

“Be careful though, the two of you,” Coran warned. “We have not contacted Regeunde since the rise of the Galra Empire. A lot may have changed.”

 

* * *

 

Lance woke up with a severe headache. He opened his eyes. The room was grey and empty, and it smelled like cement but with a more metal-like quality to it. There was only a single metal door and a small air vent the size of his palm at the top of the ceiling. There weren’t even any windows.

On his back, hands bound in front of him, Lance felt panic rise to his throat. Clumsily, he pushed himself upright. He winced. There was a dull ache in his shoulder. Was that from running into the huge door just now? Or was it the druid’s attack?

“Hunk?” he yelled when he was upright. “Hunk, buddy? You out there?”

In the silence, Lance could hear his own raspy breathing. He held his breath as he strained his ears to hear any sound, anything that could help him figure out anything at all.

Nervously, he gulped. It was quiet, save for an unnerving bubbling sound some distance away. He released his breath.

Judging from how dry his lips and mouth were, he was out for a pretty long time. Anxiously, he ran his tongue over his lips but they provided little moisture.

After wriggling about for a while, he cleared his throat. “Hunk?” he called again.

He remembered that they were chatting while heading towards the planet, which was just in sight. Mid-conversation, Lance’s vision turned purple and he was sucked backwards. He had glanced back and there it was – a Galran ship. Panicking, he had called for Hunk, but before Hunk could reach him, Lance and Red had been swallowed up by the ship.

Was Hunk alright? The pit of his stomach sank.

Hopefully, the lack of response meant that Hunk wasn’t in the ship. At least he’d be safe and then he could return to the others and call for backup quickly.

What had the druids said? Stop Voltron from forming? What plans did the Galra have?

And recreate what project? Whatever that was, Lance was the new subject of that project. And that didn’t sound in the least bit like good news.

His stomach was twisting and turning. “I can’t take this!” he grumbled.

Pursing his lips, Lance bounced on the balls of his feet, as though that would get rid of the nervousness in his belly. He began to pace around instead. Maybe there was a way out.

Clinging to that hope, he went to a wall and began inspecting it. The walls weren’t even cracked. He kicked it and yelped in pain. He hopped on his other foot as he glared at the wall. It didn’t seem likely that there’d be any secret passage or secret puzzle he could solve to get out. It was nothing like any of the movies Lance had watched, and neither was it anything like the escape rooms he used to play.

But sometimes, escape rooms had secrets that couldn’t be seen at first. Lance steeled himself. He’d always made it out of escape rooms without calling the helpline. Surely he could do it now.

With a huff of determination, Lance set to work. He began with the door and knocked on it a few times. The sound it produced was low. The door was thick and probably sturdy.

He kicked it several times. Yep. Solid. He sighed, crouched down and looked through the gap under the door. Purple light streamed in and there was no movement outside. Was no one guarding this place?

The druids were awfully confident. This cell must be really secure.

He straightened up and dug his fingernails into the edges of the door. He tried pulling it open. However, after his fingers slipped several times, he relented. He didn’t really think it’d budge anyway.

Lance shuffled over to a corner and squinted at it. It was absolutely clean of dust. He pursed his lips in frustration. Finding the cell completely rid of everything, even of dirt, frustrated Lance.

How was he supposed to escape if there were no possible clues or help in this room? How could this place even be this clean? Did the Galra obsessively clean their ships? He huffed in annoyance as he straightened back up.

He moved onto the next wall. The wall stared back at him condescendingly. Frowning, he pressed his unhurt shoulder against it and shoved as hard as he could. All he did was slide his shoes over the smooth, squeaky clean floor.

“Argh!” he yelled and kicked the wall. “An escape room helpline would be real useful right now!”

He flopped to the floor. It didn’t feel like there was a way out. Nothing was giving way! There wasn’t even anything for Lance to work with!

Lance took deep controlled breaths. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” he assured himself. Just like what Mama always said.

He got back on his feet. Maybe the floors had clues. Lance began to inspect the floor. Occasionally, he’d knock on the ground. In hopes the floor would give way, he jumped and landed as heavily as he could on several spots.

“Ok,” he mumbled. “Maybe not the floor then.”

Just as he was about to investigate the third wall, he heard some noises from outside. His eyes widened as he straightened up.

Footsteps. Getting closer and closer. Who are they? Were they here for him?

His breath hitched as his mind raced through every possibility. The most logical one being that they were druids, here to collect their new test subject.

“What is the Kuron Project anyway?” he thought. “What will they do to me?” Lance sure as heck wasn't sticking around to find out.

He pressed his back against the wall next to the door. If there was any way out, launching a surprise attack on his captors and making a run for it might be his best option. He pursed his lips and gulped, forcing himself to breathe evenly, waiting.

The door opened.

“Alright, paladin– Wait, whe–”

Whipping around, Lance set his jaw, and slammed his bound fists into the druid’s abdomen.

When the druid doubled over, Lance charged through the door. As expected, there were more of them.

He dodged a magically-charged blast from one of them. Squaring his shoulders, he body-slammed one of them and broke past the ring of druids. Before they could react, Lance was already bounding down the corridor.

There was a pair of swinging doors at the end of the hallway. He rushed through them and found himself in a black stinky room with rows and rows of bottles. Immediately, the bubbling noise was roaring in his ears. So this was where it came from.

With his arms and body, Lance knocked as many glass bottles down as he could while he tried to escape, shattering everything. He had to awkwardly twist his body so his bound arms could reach the shelves. Eventually, he gave up using his arms and kicked the cupboards down, sending the the bottles crashing into a million pieces. He could only hope this would distract the druids.

Smashing more of them, Lance ran round a corner.

Then, he saw it. A large vessel that looked like a healing pod. This was the source of the loud bubbling noise. But it was what was inside that made his stomach drop.

A creature that was about three metres tall floated in the clear purple fluid of the vessel with breathing tubes inserted in its nostrils. It was alive but not awake, if its moving chest and closed eyes were anything to go by.

Despite its unconscious state, he still couldn’t suppress the shudder that coursed through his body.

Dark green scales coated its skin, but beneath its tough-looking exterior was a large mass of muscle. Its jaws were powerful, made for crushing bones and shredding meat. Lance could imagine its large hands snapping his neck with ease and the razor-sharp teeth, which peeked out behind its thick black lips, ripping apart his flesh. Completing its Godzilla appearance was a tail, long, muscular, and armed with spikes at its end.

This monster was built to slaughter.

He backed away from the vessel, quivering and panting in fear.

His feet slid over something slippery and he looked down at the mess he had created — soft sludge of moist flesh scattered amongst shards of glass. He froze.

That’s when he realised what all those bottles were – hundreds of vessels. All in different sizes for various specimens trapped within.

His guts clenched, and he leapt back. He pressed his back against the wall.

Organs of every shape imaginable and different shades of every colour lay on the floor — a testament to the variety of species in the universe that the druids have experimented on. Glass cut into some, and fluids oozed out, mixing into the liquid preservatives.

It reeked of rotting torturous death. Most were unmoving, dead. But Lance could see movements beneath the sludge of flesh.

Spasming, squirming, writhing.

Alive.

Bile bubbled up his throat and Lance swallowed to keep it down. His gaze travelled to something of a startling blue that rolled to the side of his foot.

An eye.

Lance gagged. His hands flew to his mouth as his empty stomach lurched, unable to expel anything. Spit dribbled into his palm as he leaned away from the mess.

The door burst open. The druids started at the scene before them. Despite their masked faces, Lance saw the exact moment they erupted with fury.

They surged forward.

Dang it. He was shaking like a newborn fawn. And he felt just as defenseless. Stumbling back, he grabbed the closest thing, some rod, and waved it before himself.

One of the druids fired a white blast at him and Lance ducked.

As he did that, another druid rushed forth and he swung the rod at his attacker. When they dodged, Lance’s rod smashed into more bottles at the side. His stomach twisted again at the sight of its contents spilling out.

That moment of weakness was his doom.

A magic blow ripped the rod from his hands. Another hit his stomach while Lance was stumbling to catch the rod with his tied hands.

He fell onto the mess of broken glass and butchered specimens.

Were it not for the cushioning flesh, he might have been knocked out. But the stench slammed into him like sledgehammer.

He jerked to his side. Eyes closed and watering, he gagged drily.

The druids’ footsteps grew closer.

“Pull yourself together!” he said inwardly as he sat up.

Lance felt faint, but he forced himself to look directly at the druids. Head throbbing and stomach churning, he struggled to pull himself up, his still bound hands fumbling for a hold. Something gave way beneath his finger.

The bubbling noise ceased abruptly. Lance whipped his head and stared at the large pod.

Then, it whirred back to life. Lance’s eyes widened, and even the druids froze. The fluid in the vessel started to drain away as the light above it flashed purple.

Instantly, the druids withdrew from the vessel. That couldn’t be good.

Lance stumbled to his feet, panting. He couldn’t straighten his back. In fact, glass shards were lodged painfully in his back.

The fluid in the vessel was almost fully emptied. That creature was going to be released soon. All the druids were no longer in sight.

There was no way Lance could run like them now. His head was throbbing. His back was searing as though he had just lain on hot tar. His limbs were weak from his numerous failed attempts to puke.

So he did the next best thing. Lance crawled beneath the laboratory table. His limbs could barely even carry him into hiding before he collapsed onto his side. At least, he wasn’t out in the open. But it was still just a last ditch effort.

Alarms blared as the vessel’s door slid open. Dull, wet thumps hit the floor. A low reverberating roar shook the floor and Lance squeezed his eyes shut, shaking. He could feel tears prickling the back of his eyes.

His consciousness slowly slipped away as his worn out body deflated like a balloon. This might be it. And Lance’s body was too wrung out for him to witness the end.

Damn. He was going to die, wasn’t he?

_No._

A sudden sharp pain burst through his back. He let out a wail. His eyes were squeezed shut as tears streamed down his face.

The shout from before morphed into a soundless scream as he braced his head, writhing.

His lungs were set aflame. His skin was ripped through from beneath. His skull expanded from the inside out. Every bone was cracking and snapping, and his muscles were pulled apart.

What felt like an electric shock pulsed through him and Lance convulsed violently. His eyes were pulled open by an unknown force.

And they met angry red ones. He felt hot breath against his face.

It found him.

His world crashed to darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Somehow, Lance wakes up fine. The rest of the ship, however, was definitely not. Something isn't quite right and Lance needs to get out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heya! I’ve been really tired the past few days but i managed to get off my ass to post this lolllll. I really want to sleep now ;-; Once again, special thanks to @lunasloveliess, @oorubixoo, and @alunaii pn tumblr for helping me to beta-read this!! :)
> 
> Okay so we get to the next fun part of torturing Lance even more (i mean,,, thats the entire point of this fic tbh)

Lance woke up with a groan.  His entire body felt sore. And his head!  He rubbed the side of it , and hissed at the stinging sensation. 

“What the– What happened?” Gingerly, he pressed the painful spot. A bruise?

He was in a well-lit room with tables and chairs,  which were  haphazardly shoved to the sides of the room, toppled or broken apart. There had been a struggle or fight or something. 

The smell of iron was heavy in the room. 

Lance sat up  and saw a Galra soldier on the floor, lying in a pool of blood. There was no way she was still alive with that much blood and the flap of flesh dangling at what used to be her throat. 

Lance seized up as memories surged back. The distress signal, the capture, the attempted escape, the millions of bottles, the monstrous creature. 

Why wasn’t he dead?

He lifted his hand saw it was caked with blood. In fact, both hands were. He felt his throat constrict. 

But his hands weren’t wounded. The blood was from elsewhere. 

Lance ran his tongue over his lips and cringed as he tasted blood. “Where the heck did that come from?” he muttered to himself. 

He did a quick scan of himself. There was no gaping wound or anything of that sort. His back felt like there were glass shards in it, but that was  probably because there _ were  _ glass shards . Otherwise, he was only bruised and battered with a few shallow cuts, most likely from the glass as well. 

Did the creature spare him? For what reason?

Maybe it didn’t spare him,  so much as it had  only sought vengeance from the Galra. It was hard to imagine anyone who would be thankful for being cooped up in a liquid-filled vessel.

But what was he doing here? Did the creature bring him here? For what?

Lance sighed. He decided not to question it. He was alive. That was all that mattered now.  That and how he needed to get out. The others must be worried sick. 

He rose to his feet, grunting in effort. His vision blacked out for a moment, and Lance had to stretch out his arms to keep himself steady. His sight gradually cleared, although he remained light-headed.  The burning sensation in his back intensified, the glass shard relentless, as every other part of his body was aching dully, as though he had been thrown against several walls. 

He stumbled out of the room and winced. The corridor was drenched in blood and littered with mauled bodies. 

Some of them had their necks ripped through like the Galra in the room. Others had large gash at their torso, their ribs torn apart and left open. The occasional body was missing a limb or two, which could usually be found a couple of metres away, in its own pool of crimson. There were some bodies which were twisted unnaturally, bones snapped in two like toothpicks. 

The corridor walls were scratched up and bathed in dark red. Certain parts were slightly charred.  They were  marks made by Galra blasters. 

Then, there were the claw marks on some of the walls.  _ Those _ clearly were not Galra. 

He shuddered. 

Jesus. That creature must have gone straight up mad to wreck the place like this. The place reeked of fresh blood and death. 

Lance really was lucky to be spared from the massacre. Somehow. 

He tried not to breathe in the scent of blood, but it was soon apparent that it was unavoidable. With a resigned sigh, he walked through the corridor, carefully avoiding the corpses. 

He needed to find his lion and bayard. Then, he’d get out of here. 

Soon, Lance reached a forked road and frowned. 

Which way to turn? None of them felt like the right choice. He didn’t even know where he wanted to go in the first place. How on earth would he know if he should turn left or right?

_ Let’s try left.  _

He turned that way and continued down the long corridor. Not like he could make an informed decision at this point. 

There were several other turns, and he trusted his gut feeling to direct him. It came to him quicker than usual. 

Was he becoming another Keith Kogane? Maybe trusting instincts wasn’t that bad since Keith’s premonitions proved right. 

After about five minutes of stumbling through the corridors, Lance noticed a familiar yellow figure on the floor. His breath caught in his throat as he dashed and skidded to his knees, uncaring that they would surely be bruised later. “Hunk?!”

He wasn’t… was he?  It couldn’t be!

Fingers shaking, Lance held a hand in front of Hunk’s face.

He felt breath! Hunk was breathing!

He nearly collapsed onto his unconscious friend. “Oh, thank goodness.” He pat Hunk several times. “Hunk? Hunk? Wake up.”

When he didn’t respond, Lance’s heartbeat picked up again. He did a quick check on his friend.  Hunk didn’t seem to be sustaining any major injuries. Lance turned  his unconscious friend onto his back  and checked his breathing closely. It seemed normal.

Nothing about Hunk raised any  alarms;  his life probably wasn’t in danger. Lance patted Hunk’s head, and reassured that he was fine.

The fact that Hunk was mostly unharmed supported Lance’s theory: the monster only attacked and harmed the Galra. Anyone else was left largely unharmed. 

His stomach twisted in sympathy for the monster.

That poor fella. It must have been hurt so, so much for it to want vengeance this badly.  His heart ached for the tortured soul of the creature, even if it was a scary monster.

With a grunt, Lance grabbed Hunk’s arm and threw it over his shoulder, hissing in pain.

The glass shards. They shifted in his back, digging into his flesh.

Steeling himself, he tried to stand up but tumbled down after every try. He panted with effort. Lance’s head spun violently and his hand shot to the floor to steady himself. It took a few seconds for the world to wobble back in place. 

Maybe he had lost more blood than he thought. 

Slowly, he placed Hunk back down before scouring through the corridor and the surrounding rooms. Luckily, there was a trolley nearby. He pushed it beside Hunk before half-rolling, half-lifting him onto it as gently as he could. 

Lance had to get back to the lions. He sighed and began to push the trolley. When they arrived at a crossroad, Lance peered down all three corridors. This place was a damn maze. He pursed his lips in thought. 

_ Straight ahead?  _

Lance grunted as he leaned on the handle of the trolley and pushed forward. 

 

* * *

 

Somehow or another, Lance managed to find the lions quickly  but their barriers were activated. He knocked on Yellow’s particle barrier and called, “Hey, buddy. Could you open up?” After a small hum of greeting, the yellow lion lowered its barrier and open its mouth for Lance to trolley Hunk in.

He lifted the  large  guy with a Herculean effort and propped him up on his seat. As a safety precaution so the other boy wouldn’t go tumbling to the floor when they lifted off, Lance strapped Hunk tight with  the seatbelt. 

When Lance straightened up, he swore he felt his skin rip further. He hissed in pain. To top it all off, his back felt wet. Whether it was blood or cold sweat, he really didn’t know. 

Lance sighed loudly. The damn glass shards. He wanted to reach back and just yank them all out. That, of course, would do nothing but make more blood gush out. 

Besides, he had better things to do than make his injuries worse.

Slowly so he wouldn’t aggravate his back, he got off the ship  and nodded towards the two lions. “Wait for a sec. I still need to get the bayards and armour and stuff. Keep him safe, ‘kay, big guy?” he said, patting Yellow’s leg. “You too, Red.”

When he sensed the soft rumble of acknowledgement from the two lions, he headed back down the hallway, hoping he’d be just as lucky while finding where the bayards and armour were kept. 

_ Walk straight and a fork right up ahead… Turn right.  _

He turned and continued staggering through the corridor, sighing.

_ Just a little more.  _

He made yet another turn at yet another crossroad. But as he walked round the bend, he was hit by a distinct and unwelcome smell. 

The rotting stench. 

The more he walked, the closer he got to the laboratory, it seemed. The odour only grew stronger and stronger. Truthfully, he didn’t want to go anywhere near that lab. However, he had a strong unexplainable feeling that this was the right direction, so he didn’t turn back. 

When he made a turn again, he saw the swinging doors at the end of the corridor. It was the corridor from before.  It was empty, save for the spot near the swinging doors, where a large bulge sat in the dark. 

Lance pursed his lips. There was a strong urge to investigate it. 

_ You wouldn’t like what you’d see. No point looking. _

He pulled his gaze away, focusing on the walls instead. After walking slightly further, he found himself staring into a room. A quick glance was all Lance needed.  He spotted their bayards and armour hanging on hooks that weren’t far from the entrance. 

Unlike the corridors that smelt like rotting death, this room  already reeked  of fresh gruesome kill. It was a literal bloodbath in there  and Lance hadn’t even stepped in yet.  Fortunately, it was dark. He really didn’t want to see more dead people than he must. 

Lance glanced at the piles of bodies in the room and did a quick count. It was the same number of druids that had cornered him a while ago. 

With a shudder, he turned away, biting the inside of his cheek. The stuff they did was pretty messed up, but surely they shouldn’t have to go through such violent deaths. 

_ No, they did. They would have used you like an experiment if they hadn’t died.  _

Lance shook his head to clear it. He didn’t want to dwell on that thought. It was too frightening to think about that while standing amongst piles of corpses.

_ Get what you need and leave.  _

He steeled himself, held his breath  and stepped through the doorway . Quickly, he grabbed the  bayards and armour before darting back out into the corridor. Immediately, he put his helmet back on and switched on the communicator. 

“Hey, guys?” he tried. “Anyone online?”

“Wait. Lance?” He heard Keith say in disbelief. “Is that Lance?”

Lance laughed at the little crack in his voice, and his chest warmed up at the familiarity of his teammate’s voice. 

“It’s him, isn’t it? It’s Lance!” Pidge screamed. “Quiznak, you’re alive!”

There was a flurry of cheers and screaming and talking all at once. Lance couldn’t catch a word they were saying amongst all the noise. “Guys. You need to talk one by one. Can’t understand a word,” he said, a sigh in his voice.

He dropped to the floor and propped his head up on his knees. Feeling a little cold, Lance hugged his legs tightly. His eyelids were heavy with lethargy. 

“Shiro and I lost all contact with you!” Coran yelled first.

“I could sense your lions moving away from Regeunde. But I couldn’t do a single thing!” Allura cried. Her voice was wracked with panic and  guilt , trembling violently. “I tried to go back to the castle as fast as I could, but–”

“We couldn’t move out of the base! Security was tight and we had to follow for the sentry’s cycle, so we were moving at snail pace. But we’re heading back in now,” Pidge stuttered . “We’re so sorry!”

“Nah. It’s alright now.” Lance chuckled weakly. “Sorry for worrying you guys.”

“Are you okay though, Lance?” Shiro asked. 

“Yeah, ‘m fine. A little beat up, but fine. How long has it been?”

“Three vargas!” Keith shouted. 

“Geez… No need to yell… My poor ears, Keith. Definitely felt a lot longer than that though. My throat’s all dry.”

“What happened?” Pidge asked. “And where’s Hunk?”

“Apparently, the druids were ordered to stop Voltron from forming. Got dragged into their ship. Hunk’s knocked out or something. He’s in Yellow so he should be safe. Should still check up on him when we get back,” he mumbled. “They’re definitely planning something. Turns out you were right, huh, Keith?”

There was a curt hum from Keith. 

Coran said, his voice more composed than before, “I am able to locate you through your communicator now.”

“Hang in there,” Keith said, firm and reassuring. “We’re nearly in the castle.”

Pidge said, “The Galra will most likely have a plan ready if we come to rescue them. We need to be careful.”

Lance  bit his lip . “Whatever they’ve got up their sleeves, it probably won’t work now. The entire ship’s wiped out.” His hands were cold and stiff so he rubbed them together. 

“What?”

“I’ll… explain later. I don’t feel good talking about that… now,” he said, glancing around the eerily quiet corridor. “Anyway, I’ll try to move away from the ship in the meantime. In case there’s, like, a booby trap or something.”

“Right,” Allura said. “Do stay safe, Lance.”

“As you wish, princess!” Lance said playfully, even adding a small superfluous bow despite his lack of an audience. 

The groans and sighs came nonetheless.  

“Just hurry up,” Keith grumbled. 

“Alright! Lance out,” he replied before switching the communicator off. 

With sore limbs and an aching back, Lance struggled to get back on his knees. When he did, his eyes were drawn to the large bulge right in front of the swinging doors to the laboratory once again. 

It sat there, ominous and unmoving, but Lance couldn’t shake off this lurching feeling in his stomach. He  _ had _ to look at it. Yet, something in him kept warning him that it wouldn’t be a good idea. 

It wasn’t moving anymore. Surely it was dead. Why was he so terrified?

_ Of course you’re afraid! It’s a body! How could you not be? You should just leave it alone.  _

No, it wasn’t that he was scared of the body or its death. There was something else about it. Something was very off. If he took a closer look, he should be able  figure it out .

_ But perhaps you are better off not knowing.  _

Maybe.

Still, Lance found himself inching closer.  His heart slammed against his ribcage, and his breath was shallow and fast , not unlike that of a terrified rabbit. He activated his bayard and his breath hitched at the transformation. His hands were tightly curled around the gun as he slid his left foot forward, then his right.

A single look was all it took.

He jerked back. “Ay dios mio,” he breathed. 

That bulge. It was mangled,  resembling a crumpled paper ball rather than the limbed creature it had been.

But the dark green scales and sharp claws were unmistakable. Its head had been ripped off and was sitting wide-eyed beside the body. Still and unseeing, as though paralysed with shock.

It was the monster from the lab. 

Lance broke into a run. With what little strength he had left, he dashed him to the lions— to safety.

He didn’t have the courage to look around now. Not when bodies of the Galra were scattered over the floor— disfigured, mauled, destroyed. 

 

* * *

 

As soon as Lance  made it to his lion, he fumbled for the buttons and managed to take off.  His legs were jelly and his heart was beating quickly, but whether from running or fear, he didn’t know.

When he tried to sit down, pain spiked through his body. Glass shards. He let out a groan and remained standing.

Lance tapped the button at the side of his helmet. “Hey, guys. How much longer are you gonna take?”

“We’re almost there, Lance,” Allura’s calm voice came in. “Wait for us outside the ship. We should be there in a tick.” 

“Okay. Thanks, ’llura,” Lance mumbled as he shuffled his weight to his other foot and switched the intercom off. He was way more exhausted than he had thought. “Okay, Red, m’ buddy,” he said. “We gotta drag Yellow and Hunk out. We should be able to reach the rest that way.”

Lance managed to complete that task with a combination of nudging and tugging and dying noises. As soon as they were out,  the space in front of their lions folded into itself, and the Castle of Lion winked into existence.

He heaved a huge sigh of relief. His legs buckled and he barely caught himself in time. 

_ Careful! _

As he lowered himself,  he was careful not to hurt his back any further and lay on his side, tired and sleepy. Every part of his body was  _ aching _ . 

He felt Red being dragged and he looked up to see Blue pushing him and the black lion grabbing Yellow with its massive jaws. By the time Red  had landed securely in the castle, Lance was curled into a foetal position. His eyelids were closed and he could feel himself slipping. He managed to open his eyes enough to see the interior of the hangar. 

Just a short nap. After that, he’d wake up to make sure Hunk was fine. His eyelids fluttered shut again. 

A loud “Lance!” woke him. 

Someone touched his shoulder and he hissed in pain. The hand was quickly removed.

“Oh gods. Lance? Are you awake?” Allura asked, tapping his arm frantically. “Please be awake.”

“Hm?”

She let out an audible sigh of relief. Her voice grew a little distant as she turned away from him to speak into her intercom. “Tell Coran to ready the operation table. Bring a stretcher to Red’s Hanger. Lance has lost a lot of blood.” After a brief moment of silence, Allura’s voice was directed to Lance again. “Alright, stay awake. Open your eyes,” she said. 

“’m sleepy, princess. And everything kinda hurts,” he mumbled. “Gimme five more minutes.”

“Lance, stay with me. Just open your eyes a little longer,” Allura said as she conducted a check on Lance’s body. 

With a groan, Lance forced his eyes open. His vision was blurry for a moment. Then, his eyes found iridescent blue ones and locked on to them. “ Y’know , princess, your eyes are really pretty,” he blurted. “ Anyone told y’ that? Like jewels.” 

“Alright, Lance,” Allura said absently as she ran her hands over his limbs  to check for wounds. She let out a soft curse when she saw his arms. “Do you know how badly you’re injured?”

“I know I have glass in my back,” Lance replied. 

“Glass?!” Allura cried. 

He tried to turn to let Allura see it, but the movement sparked a sharp pain through him and he let out a gasp, too tired to do any more than that. “Ah, fudge ball,” he whimpered. “Didn’t hurt so much  jus’  now…”

“Did you jostle it while on the lion?” Allura peered over his shoulder and winced. “Oh, this is much worse than I thought. There’s so much– Why didn’t you say anything?”

Lance shrugged slightly, causing more pain to spike through him like an electric current. He dropped his head against the floor and breathed heavily, trying to steady himself.

_ Stay awake. She wants you to stay awake.  _

But surely a short little nap would be fine–

“Lance!” Allura called again. “Stay awake, alright? Stay awake. Help is coming.” She placed a reassuring hand on the back of his. 

Lethargically, Lance nodded but he was losing focus. When he found himself staring at blobs of blurry colours, he shook his head and tried to concentrate on Allura. 

“ ’s Hunk okay? ” he asked. 

“What? Oh. Keith and Coran are attending to him right now.”

“But is he oka–”

“Princess Allura!” Shiro’s voice came. “I have the stretcher.” His worried face hovered above Lance’s. “Hey, Lance. Hang in there.” Shiro gave him his worried-dad smile and Lance returned it with a tired one. 

Allura hoisted Lance up and placed him on his side on a stretcher.

“Make sure he does not roll. His back is full of glass . We do not want it to be pushed in any further,” she told Shiro as they strapped Lance securely to the stretcher. 

Just as he began to close his eyes, she pat his cheek. “Stay awake, please.”

“As you wish, princess,” Lance mumbled with a quirk of his lips. 

Quickly, the two of them carried Lance out of the lion. They ran into Keith , who had just sprinted over from the direction of the infirmary .  He matched the pace of Shiro and Allura as he gave them a quick rundown . “Hunk’s fine. Coran ran a check on him in the healing pod. Only bruised and slightly concussed. Nothing too bad.  Put him in the healing pod for about two vargas and he’ll be fine.”

“That’s good,” Lance muttered. 

Keith shot him a look filled with both rage and worry. 

Lance gave him a sheepish grin.

With a groan, Keith squeezed his eyes shut and tore his attention away from Lance. He turned back to Shiro.  “The operation room and Coran are free. Pidge prepared the room and some blood bags already.”

“Good,” Shiro replied. 

They reached the operation table. As Shiro laid Lance onto the operation table, Allura explained the situation to Coran, “There are multiple glass shards in his back and burns to his arms.”

“Can I sleep now?” Lance mumbled. No one seemed to hear him over  the loud clangs of preparation and rapid dissemination of information and instructions. 

_ Try to stay awake. _

But he was so, so exhausted. 

_ Just a little bit longer.  _

Lance still found his eyes blinking slower.

“First degree burns, I believe,” Allura continued. “Multiple wounds to his arms and legs. Blade wounds. I can’t see much of his skin beneath the suit, but there seem to be many bruises.” She pulled at a cut in the suit and exposed some of Lance’s skin to Coran.

Coran winced. “He’s very pale. He must have lost a lot of blood.”

Eyelids heavy, Lance let himself slowly drift away. No one was replying him anyway. “ G’night ,” Lance mumbled, closing his eyes. 

 

* * *

 

For some reason, Lance was aware that he was in a dream. He wondered if this was one of those lucid dreams Rachel had once talked about. He had never had one before. However, something felt a little different. Because this dream… didn’t feel like his. 

His movements weren’t fully under his control. It was as if his actions and feelings and thoughts while in this state were  _ shared _ with someone else. 

In the dream, he was in the druid’s lab again. This time, he was in a jar on the shelf. It was difficult to see anything outside the jar. There was a white rectangle, probably a jar label, obscuring his vision. Behind him was a white wall, and to his sides were similar jars.

Each jar contained a blue and green creature that looked like half-developed foetus, except with a long tail that was twice the length of their body. They had small jagged mouths and two pairs of beady eyes. The twitch of their eight legs, and the slow movement of their feelers were the only indicators that they weren’t dead as they floated about in liquid.

Though they didn’t look alive to Lance either. 

When Lance focused on the reflection on his glass jar, he realised he looked just like them. His wrinkly skin was dark green with splashes of bright blue. 

His eyes travelled to the creature on his right, who had the most brilliant shade of green on the tip of their tail. They looked rather lethargic with their feelers drooping and head slightly bowed. As though sensing someone watching, they lifted their head, and beady eyes looked back at Lance. Despite never meeting such a creature before, Lance recognised their small tail movement as a greeting. He returned the gesture politely and watched as the other creature shook with joy, a momentary relief from the tense lifeless atmosphere of the room. 

Then, there was a click. With a flick of his tail, Lance swirled in the jar and peeked through a thin gap under the jar label. An involuntary shudder ran through him.

Druids. 

They got to work. Some prepared the laboratory table and equipment, but Lance’s attention was drawn to the druid approaching the shelf he was on. 

His eyes made contact with the creature on his right again. Their tail shivered as they floated backwards in the fluid. Fear. 

He glanced around. Everyone else was shaking in terror. He looked forward again to see the druid considering them all as though they were canned soup at a supermarket. 

The druid’s arm loomed in Lance’s direction. With a squeak, Lance squeezed his eyes shut and curled into a ball. For several seconds, nothing happened. He worked up the courage to open his eyes again. 

The spot on his right was empty. Alarm surged through his body, and he launched himself to the side of the jar. The druid was walking towards the table with a jar in hand. 

A flicker of brilliant green. 

“Fivirion!” The name slipped from his mouth.  _ The name associated with that beautiful shade of green,  _ something in his mind supplied. 

Fivirion swivelled in the jar, and their eyes stared into his.  Fivirion was frozen in place.

There was a violent, wrenching tug in Lance’s gut. As if there were millions more memories between them, and this was the final sliver of a moment left that they could ever share.

Lance felt his body press against the glass of jar and his voice screaming Fivirion’s name over and over and over.

A druid twisted the jar open, and Fivirion was poured into a light blue tray. There was sufficient light for Lance to catch their silhouette in the tray, flickering and writhing about frantically.

“Vree! Vree!” they screamed, and Lance felt his voice yell with greater urgency, “Fivirion!”

He moved back and slammed against the front of his jar. His heart was beating a thousands beats per second. He was on the verge of combusting with panic. Desperate, he swished in his jar and jumped to hit the jar cap. 

It wouldn’t budge.

Fivirion’s screams morphed into a screech. Lance  plunged to the bottom of the jar to look through the gap.

The druid used a pair of tweezers to seize Fivirion. Dread wracked through Lance’s body with fearful familiarity, despite never having seen it before. The druid swished Fivirion in the liquid of the tray for several seconds. When he was done, they were no longer screaming. 

There was the occasional defiant twitch. But the druid had them under control. 

The druid picked up a small needle and drove it into them  and Fivirion spasmed for several seconds before falling deathly still again.

Lance pressed his body against the glass jar again, a sense of defeat washing over him.

A large creature was rolled into the lab. It was heavily sedated, its eyes only open a fraction, allowing its bright orange eyes to peep through. Its huge furry body slumped heavily against the cage it was in.

Lance felt faint. His breathing was heavy and his head felt light.

The druids opened the top of the cage and shoved the creature about roughly as they readied it for their procedure. When it was hooked onto a monitor and several tubes, they began the operation. 

They shaved the back of its head and carefully made a small hole in it. Using the pair of tweezers, they picked Fivirion up and inserted them into the creature’s skull.

By this point, Lance could watch no longer. He curled into himself and squeezed his eyes shut. 

He’d be lying if he said he knew what exactly was going on. 

But he knew it was very wrong. The millions of indecipherable feelings, which welled up inside him and made his feelers shrivel, told him so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some people might have figured some things out hurhurhur. You could make guesses in the comment section! :3c Whether it's right or wrong.... well, I won't spoil too much so dun expect too much from me :p
> 
> I originally planned to post a chapter once every Tuesday but god thats too tiring and i have a life (+ other wip to work on) so.... theres a change in plans! It will not have a fixed schedule but I’ll still try to keep it regular! No worries!!!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's back to the good ol’ ordinary paladin days! (Not.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OK HI SORRY I TOOK SO LONG irl things suck and kicked my ass so currently im facing several (minor but still time consuming) things. But i finally got to posting this hhhhhhhh
> 
> Special thanks to @oorubixoo and @lunasloveliess on tumblr for helping me beta read this!! Without them this woud fall apart tbh hahahaha
> 
> IM PRAYING THE NEXT CHAPTER WILL HAVE A SMOOTHER UPDATE HHHHH Anyway! Like promised, have some klance!!! :) But dont forget your chapterly dosage of angst! And fear!

Pidge was the next to leave the dining area. “Rest, okay?” she yelled at Lance from the doorway. “And don’t make me fucking murder your sorry ass if I find out you’re hiding some curse or whatever. Tell us immediately if anything’s weird. They’re druids for fuck’s sake!”

Lance shrugged apologetically back at her. He probably shouldn’t remind her that Shiro wouldn’t like the language she was using. Clearly, someone was holding back while in Shiro’s presence. Meanwhile, Hunk turned around and bade her goodnight.

With a huff, she stormed round the bend, back to her room to rest for the night.

The two best friends were now the only ones left in the dining area. Hunk said, “I may not have said anything, but just so you know, Lance, I think you deserved that.”

“I know, alright? I had an hour of lecturing already. Cut me some slack, dude,” Lance grumbled as he stretched his body over the table. He scooped another spoonful of food goo and tipped it into his mouth.

Hunk sighed loudly. “Please eat properly. How does your mother even stand watching you eat?”

“She doesn’t. I don’t eat like this in front of her ever. She’d throw her slipper at me if I did.” Grinning, he shovelled another spoonful into his mouth.

“Then, why do you do it here?”

“Because she isn’t here! And I’m just really exhausted.” Lance sighed. “You know, Hunk, I had this really weird dream.”

Frowning, Hunk asked, “Are you supposed to have dreams in the healing pod?”

“Hmm… I don’t know. This is the first time I did. I was this weird creature, and I was back in that druid lab. It was really creepy.”

Hunk looked at him concernedly. “Ugh. Sounds creepy. You said the lab had lots of alien specimens, right?”

“Yeah, I was saying that before I got rudely cut off.” He pouted.

Huffing in amusement, Hunk crossed his arms. “You were trying to change the subject. Emphasis on ‘trying’ by the way.” His smile turned into a frown. “Actually, now that I think about it… I think I saw one of them. The aliens, I mean. It was this really huge monster.”

Lance’s jaw dropped, and he bolted upright. “You did?”

“Yeah. I woke up and the druids brought me out, but, just then, this huge monster came crashing down the hallway. I was freaking out really badly and tried to run.” Hunk rubbed the back of his neck. “But then, I hit my head or something. I don’t remember much after that, to be honest.”

“Oh, you had a concussion, right?”

Hunk gave a shrug that meant “yeah, I guess so.”

“It’s a good thing you don’t remember much. That monster was brutal. All of them were just… killed horribly.”

Hunk winced. “I remember enough to, like, know that I do _not_ want to cross that thing ever again. And...” He shuddered. “Oh, god, those _claws_. Those things were, like, really scary.”

“Geez,” Lance muttered. “Yeah. That reminds me, I should to tell the others what I saw.”

“Yeah, do that in the morning. When everyone’s awake and less tired.” Hunk added, “And when I’m less likely to get nightmares. I’ve had enough nightmare material already.” He stood up to leave. “Hey, you know, Lance? While you were in the pod, everyone was really worried, and the mood was pretty bad. Scolding you was probably the liveliest they’ve been the past three days. We care a lot about you.”

Lance’s eyes widened, looking into his best friend’s earnest ones. His gaze shifted to the half-finished bowl of food goo as a wave of warmth washed over him. “I guess you guys do,” he muttered with a smile, tracing the rim of his bowl with his index finger. “I’ll be more careful next time.”

“Next time? If you’re planning on a next time, count me out. I’m not going through all of that a second round.”

Lance gasped. “Good point!”

 

* * *

 

 

The next morning, after Lance had finished recounting what had happened on the ship, the looks on everyone’s faces ranged from horror to disgust to anger. He had already left out most of the gut-twisting details, only mentioning the more important things. It wasn’t like he had the stomach to say them even if anyone asked for it. Still, the effect on the team was evident. It definitely wasn’t a good story to start the day, but Lance knew it was necessary to inform the others of his… findings. Now, the bridge was unusually chilly.

While everyone stayed in uncomfortable silence, Allura flew into a rage. “How can the Galra do such a horrendous thing?!” she screamed, practically breathing fire. “Using— Using others like this! Like playthings!”

“At least they’re dead now,” Lance said, hoping it’d ease the princess’ ire.

“That is only one station! I am certain there are plenty more at the Galra’s convenience,” she hissed. “It must be Haggar’s doing. That wretched witch! When I see her again, I will boil her and throw her into the pit of Blachevorn for the Galgehorts to peel apart and devour!”

The humans shared uneasy glances. They didn’t know what that meant, but it sounded brutal.

“Playing with lives like that,” Shiro muttered, looking at his prosthetic arm. “That is… very much like Haggar.”

Without a word, Keith shifted to Shiro’s side and placed a comforting hand on his back. It hurt to see Shiro flinch at the contact before relaxing into it.

“I-I’m sorry, Shiro,” Lance said. “Maybe I shouldn’t have… I was being insensitive towards you, wasn’t I?”

Taking a deep shaky breath, Shiro shook his head. “No. I insisted on hearing the full story.”

Pidge shuffled over and hugged Shiro’s waist. He gave a grateful huff and patted the small paladin’s head appreciatively.

“Wait,” Hunk said. “Lance, you said the… thing you accidentally released was, uh, green?”

“Yeah. Dark green with scales and stuff. Like a dark green Godzilla. And it was about… 3 metres tall.”

“3 metres?!” Hunk gaped.

Coran asked, “What’s a Godzilla? Is it an animal on Earth?”

“It’s fictional,” Lance explained. “And it’s this large lizard monster, and it tears down buildings and stuff— Wait, is Godzilla dark green?”

Pidge furrowed her brow in thought. “Black, I think? Shiro, do you know?”

“Why do you ask me specifically?” Shiro asked. Some colour had returned to his face now.

“Because you’re from Japan. And that’s where Godzilla’s from, right?”

Shiro chuckled. “What? I’ve never even watched Godzilla. And why didn’t you ask Keith?”

“Keith doesn’t know _any_ pop culture,” Lance supplied.

“In my defense,” Keith said, arms folded, “I was in an orphanage most of my life so I didn’t get to watch TV or movies and find out about pop culture. If— _If_ it helps, I read a lot of comics.”

“Oh, you did?” Lance said, raising an eyebrow at him. “Like what?”

“Mostly Marvel. Some DC—”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Hunk said, raising his voice slightly. “But um… I have a question. Or an issue. Kind of an issue.”

The others turned their attention to him, urging him to continue.

“Lance, you said that this creature you let out was dark green with scales like Godzilla and stood at 3 metres tall.”

“Um, 3 metres is kinda just a rough estimate.”

“Yeah but… I think another creature got released. The monster I saw was more like… a puma? And definitely not that tall.”

Lance frowned. “What?”

_It definitely did not look like a… a puma._

“The one I saw had fur, and large paws, and feline ears, and everything,” Hunk insisted.

“What? No way!”

Crossing his arms, Coran said, “Are you sure? You had a concussion. Isn’t that right, number four? Could you have remembered it incorrectly?”

“Yeah but…” Hunk sighed. “I know I can’t exactly prove what I saw was right. But I remember it very clearly. I mean, Lance, you said the monster was dead in the corridor, right?”

Lance nodded hesitantly.

“What if that wasn’t the monster who killed the Galra? Lance, there was another monster on that ship and I saw it slaughter the Galra. I’m sure of it. And it wasn’t lizard-like at all.”

Lance’s eyes widened.

_Hunk had a concussion. He may not have remembered it right. There was only one monster, right?_

But it didn’t make sense! If everyone, including the monster, was dead, then—

“Well, whatever it is, it was left on the ship,” Keith said. “There’s no point focussing on that already. It’s creepy, but not important anymore. There are more important things we should be thinking about.”

“Keith is right,” Allura said. “We should focus on stopping Haggar’s cruel and revolting projects. The Galra have gone too far for too long!”

Coran nodded. “I will be scanning through our newly obtained information from the Galra base we just infiltrated. We might have something to work on from there.”

“The rest of us shall proceed to the training room,” Allura said.

With a groan, Pidge smacked Lance’s arm. “Go mortally injure yourself again. I would really appreciate the break.”

“Pidge,” Coran called. “I need your help with deciphering the codes.”

Pidge’s eyes widened with glee, and she pumped her fist in the air. She ran after Coran towards the centre of the bridge and yelled, “Fuck yeah! Goodbye, suckers!”

Surprisingly, Shiro didn’t say a word about the bad language. That additional tiny victory for her annoyed Lance the same way watching his siblings get the last garlic knot would.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed to the training room. “Well, I can still injure myself. Maybe then I can skip training too.”

“Please don’t actually do that, Lance,” Keith said from in front with a sigh.

“Aww… The emotional toll would be too heavy for you, mullet?”

“No. Only the body we have to throw through the airlock would be,” he replied.

“Hey!”

Before Keith could respond, the princess grabbed his attention to talk about the training schedule she had planned. With a huff, Lance crossed his arms and followed after.

Hunk snuck up behind Lance. “Just so you know, he was the most fidgety and nervous while you were in the pod. Everyone told him to go rest already, but he was pretty stubborn about staying.”

“Really?” Lance said, his cheeks felt a little warm as he looked at Keith, who was wearing a weird pout and listening to Allura.

Cheekily, Hunk added, “And he stayed the longest.”

Lance tried not to grin too hard.

Unfortunately, that did not go unnoticed by his best friend, who clapped him on the back. “You’ve got it so bad, Lance,” he teased.

Lance’s jaw fell and he sputtered. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Narrowing his eyes at him, Hunk said, “Just admit it. You can’t hide it from me.”

“I’m not hiding anything!” Lance screeched. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, if I’m honest, Keith’s definitely a good-looking dude. And he’s nice too. Unlike some of your previous crushes.”

“Yeah, right. As if I have a crush on Mullet Man.”

“You definitely like him. You make googly eyes at him all the time,” Hunk said as he clasped his hands together and made exaggerated kissy faces.

Lance pushed him. “No, I don’t. Stop that face!”

But Hunk continued to tease him even after they were in the training room.

“Why do you do this to me?” Lance groaned.

“Because I have every right to make fun of my best friend if he’s absolutely smitten.”

“For the last time, Hunk, I’m not smitten with Keith!”

“Lance.”

His heart skipped a beat at the voice.

“You said in the previous training that you need to work more on close combat, right?” Keith continued, not noticing the way the other boy had stiffened. “The two of us can train together while the others use the training bots. Over there?” He pointed to the further end of the training room.

Lance cleared his throat. Thankfully, his voice didn’t squeak as he replied, “Yep. Totally. Sure. Thanks.”

“I’m warning you though. I won’t go easy on you,” he said with a confident smirk before walking towards the chosen spot.

With a knowing grin, Hunk leaned towards a red-faced Lance. Before Hunk could open his mouth, Lance spun on his heel and hissed, “Not. A word.”

His best friend shrugged and pulled an imaginary zipper across his mouth. However, the look on his face already said a thousand words, and Lance’s ears were definitely flushed.

Knowing nothing he said could save him, Lance scowled and stalked after Keith. When Keith looked behind and saw the look on Lance’s face, he gave him that illegally adorable head tilt, sending an metaphorical arrow through Lance’s heart. It took all of his strength to huff, “It’s nothing.”

Keith shrugged as if to say, “If you say so.” Then, he went to the panel on the walls and pressed several buttons. Lance stood beside him, where it was safe, as the floor opened up and blue mats rose up to form an elevated training platform.

Keith tilted his head towards the mats so Lance moved to the centre of the mats gingerly with his lips pursed. The mat shifted slightly under Lance as Keith followed after. They did some routine stretching exercises to warm up. Lance made a pointed effort not to stare at Keith too much. Not with the previous conversation with Hunk replaying in his head again and again.

“Okay,” Keith began when they were done. “Let’s try seeing what you can do first.” He got into a stance. “Show me what you’ve got.”

He was quiznak-ing confident, and he had every reason to be. Taking a deep breath, Lance got into position as well. There were butterflies in his stomach as Keith’s burning gaze travelled from his face to his feet and back up. Lance had to remind himself that Keith was probably just looking for mistakes. When he was ready, he charged at Keith with his fist raised.

With a quick shift, Keith redirected his punch and trapped his arm. Before Lance could even react, his legs were kicked from behind him, and he was pushed down. Lance hit the ground with a loud _THUMP_. He was pinned to the floor.

_That ended faster than I expected._

“Ohhhh, man,” he heard Hunk say from the other side of the room. Lance would throw something at Hunk if he could. However, he was stuck in Keith’s hold.

Lance could practically hear the smirk on Keith’s face as he said, “Good try.”

Refusing to give in so easily, Lance struggled for a while before flopping down in defeat. “Well, that was quick,” he mumbled and glanced at Keith.

And boy, was _that_ a bad life choice.

Keith shook with the most adorable laughter. “You have to be. It’d be exhausting to drag on any fight for too long.”

His black hair fell around his face, framing his soft features, as he looked at Lance from above. His purple eyes shined with the same excitement that always arose when he was training. Maybe because of Keith’s pale skin, his face was dusted with a slight flush even after such a brief exertion. That, combined with his breathy chuckles right beside Lance’s ear, was just too much for his poor heart to handle.

D-did Lance _like_ getting pinned under Keith? Was getting tossed around effortlessly an undiscovered fetish of his? Since when did he get off being in a vulnerable position? Was he into _that_ kind of sex? A thousand other questions Lance shouldn’t be asking himself during a combat training session raced through his head.

They were only broken off when Keith finally let go of Lance with a small grunt. (That sound did nothing to help Lance’s sanity.) He held out a hand and said, “Looks like we’ve got a lot of work to do.”

As casually as possible, Lance took the hand and was pulled to his feet easily. His stomach was flip-flopping like a fish on dry land.

Keith rubbed the back of his head. “Well, first we’ve got to work on your balance. Get in position.”

Lance lowered himself into his defensive stance.

“Feet apart... Your knees will be vulnerable if you lock them, so don’t do that. Bend your knees slightly... Yeah! Like that! Now, I’m going to show you the hold just now,” Keith said.

“I-I’m going to do the hold now?” Lance asked.

Keith raised a brow at him. “Yeah?”

“Okay, okay. That’s cool. I can totally pull that off. No problem.”

“Yeah! It’s pretty simple!”

Suddenly, Lance whipped his head around and caught Hunk deliberately looking away. There was an unmistakable smirk on Hunk’s face. Some friend he was!

This continued throughout Keith’s explanation. Every time Lance glanced over, Hunk was either grinning at him knowingly or pretending he wasn’t paying attention to what was happening on the other side of the room.

It was to the point where Allura got annoyed and had to remind Hunk to pay attention during shooting practice. At that, Lance stuck his tongue out at Hunk, but that earned himself a judging glare from Keith. So he just cleared his throat nervously and focused on training.

He tried out the movements of the counter he just learnt several times before Keith asked, “Want to try it with me now?”

Lance gulped. The moment he had simultaneously been waiting for and dreading. He got into position. Hopefully, he wouldn’t disappoint at least.

“I won’t punch fast for now. We could speed it up later,” Keith said as he mirrored Lance. “Ready?”

He nodded.

Keith came at Lance. Having practiced the move, Lance reacted in a timely manner, deflecting Keith’s attack, trapping his arm, and kicking his legs beneath him, all in one smooth motion. Keith was flipped and held against the floor mats.

There was a moment of stillness as their eyes stayed locked. Keith broke the eye contact as he threw his head back and chuckled. “You’ve got it!”

“Of course I did!” Lance bounced right off of Keith and made finger guns at him, trying really hard to act cool about it. “I can handle anything you throw at me. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!”

Lies. Lance couldn’t handle _anything_ remotely Keith. Lance could still see it — the way his soft hair was splayed across the navy mat, the way his cheeks were dusted pink, the way his long eyelashes fluttered gently like butterfly wings.

Even after Keith got up and dusted himself off, Lance’s heart was still racing, and he still felt faint.

Here’s the thing: He wasn’t into getting pinned or any other strange kink that Lance had yet to find out about.

He was just really, really into Keith.

Across the mat, Keith lowered himself into a fighting stance again. “Round two?” he said, smirking challengingly.

And Lance was so, so screwed.

 

* * *

 

After a quick shower, Lance went straight to Hunk’s room, and Hunk opened the door for him when he knocked on it. Lance collapsed straight into the bed.

“Oh no,” he said into the pillow. “Oh no.”

“Yes?” Hunk asked as he settled down beside him. Something from his tone said he knew what was going to come next.

Lance pulled his face away from the pillow and looked at his best friend with wide pleading eyes. “Keith looks too good while kicking my ass. That’s not allowed, right? It’s cheating, right?”

“I don’t know, man,” Hunk said. “All I’m hearing from you now is ‘I’m a lot gayer than I thought I was.’ And, to tell you the truth, I’ve known that since a long time ago.”

Throwing his head onto Hunk’s belly, Lance whined, “Huuuunk.”

A knowing smile on his face, Hunk shrugged and folded his arms.

Lance harrumphed noisily and turned away from Hunk. “You’re officially not my friend anymore.”

“Sure. Good luck not having someone to whine to after your afternoon session with Keith.”

Lance pouted.

Hunk laughed at how ridiculous his friend was being and settled comfortably into his bed. After a moment, however, Hunk broke the silence tentatively, “Hey.” The mood had shifted. “I’m still kind of worried.”

“Is it the monster thing?” Lance asked, turning around.

Hunk nodded.

_There was really only one monster, wasn’t there?_

But Lance could never be entirely sure. He sat up and placed an arm on Hunk’s shoulder. “What about it is bothering you exactly?”

Hunk shook his head. “I just- I just don’t understand. What was it? I swear, that cat monster exists! I kept thinking about what you said, and nothing makes sense. It’s as if this monster just poofed out of nowhere and then disappeared. There’s just something very wrong with this and I really hate how nothing makes sense.” He sighed. “Sorry. I keep getting so hung up over this.”

Pursing his lips in sympathy, Lance pat Hunk’s shoulder. “Hey, don’t be sorry about that. Every team needs a worrier to keep everyone in check, you know?” he said.

Hunk didn’t look entirely convinced but returned a smile anyway.

“How about we go check up on Pidge? Maybe she found something,” Lance suggested.

Hunk thought for a while. “Yeah. That’s a good idea actually. If there was anything about the monsters and experiments the Galra are doing, it would probably be somewhere in their database.”

The two boys got up and went to the bridge to find Pidge. Sure enough, she was bent over her laptop on the floor, typing away rapidly and facing a large holographic image of the universe.

With a sigh, Lance squatted down and gently pulled her shoulders back. She let out a yelp and turned to glare at Lance.

“That posture can’t be good for your back. Get a table or something.”

She scowled and turned back, resuming her typing. Hunk came over with a foldable table and tapped her back. She looked up, saw what Hunk brought and lifted her laptop off her knees.

When Hunk had finished setting up the table, which took no more than three seconds, Pidge placed the laptop onto the table and went back to inspecting the stuff on her screen, her posture improved now.

“Have you found anything yet?” Hunk said as he sat down beside her and leaned over to look at her screen.

Pidge groaned and got to her feet. “A little. Firstly, the Galra are definitely warring amongst themselves now. There has been a massive change in trading routes almost instantly after Zarkon’s death. Communication between galaxies and commanders seem to be at an all-time-low for centuries. Except for the occasional challenge declaration.”

“Yeah,” Hunk muttered. He shuffled on his butt to accommodate Lance, who sat down and leaned against Hunk. “I guess that’s to be expected. The Galra don’t exactly seem to be a friendly bunch. And Zarkon has been alive for, like, ten thousand years and stuff. His death is probably groundbreaking.”

Pidge nodded in agreement. “But it seems like the witch isn’t resting either. Look. There’s been a lot of movement of classified goods between their headquarter ship — that’s where Haggar is I think — and this base in that part of the galaxy. The one where Reguende is.” She pointed to a highlighted cluster of lights. “Within that area, there’s been a lot of activity apparently.”

Hesitantly, Lance asked, “What kind of activity?”

“Experiments and tests.”

A shiver ran down Lance’s spine at those words. He had to take deep breaths to calm himself down.

“It’s highly classified so we don’t have much information from the shared database to work with. But there’s something we _do_ know.” Pidge sat back down and turned the screen to face the two boys. “Druids from all over the empire are involved in this project.”

The screen showed footage of druids watching over Galra soldiers as they mounted cages and other cargo into ships. Lance shivered and rubbed his arms to ease the goosebumps.

“That means it could be what Lance saw in the lab,” Hunk said.

Pidge sighed. “I’d say so.”

Lance’s stomach lurched at the thought. “A-and it’s, like… we’re going to see _that_ again?”

She gave him a sympathetic look. “Most likely.”

A shiver ran down Lance’s spine. He didn’t ever want to see that scene ever again. It was too ungodly. The thought of it still made him sick. How many of these things did Haggar have?

And those _monsters_. How would they deal with them?

God! Forget about the monster! He couldn’t even properly defend himself against druids! He let himself get caught once, and he only barely managed to escape the next time! If it weren’t for the accidental release of that Godzilla monster, who knows what the druids would have done to Lance?

He cupped his mouth with his hand as his mind flashed back to the jars filled with organs and the dream in the healing pod. That could have been him. He was trembling again at the thought. He had only barely escaped by some miracle. And there was no way he could count on miracles to save him every time.

He had to defend himself. He had to train. He had to get stronger. Or else...

His eyes darted to Pidge. Lance didn’t want to put that possibility in her mind. She was still looking for her brother and father. They had no clue where they could possibly be except that they were captured by Galra. Her brother seemed to have escaped from the Galra’s gasp, but her father was another story.

So Lance held his tongue, despite the temptation, to get rid of the building tightness in his chest, to voice that almost tangible fear of becoming a test subject, to seek reassurances that it would never happen. But he knew promises like that are empty.

They were at war. What use were promises between friends when they were merely feeble comforting words?

Lance felt a hand on his shoulder, breaking his train of thought. He looked over to see Hunk’s concerned smile as Pidge reached for his wrist and squeezed it. They didn’t prod him. Instead, they sat with him in silence, reassuring him with their presence.

Still, all Lance could muster was a shaky smile.

He needed to get stronger.

 

* * *

 

“You promise me that training bot isn’t going to whip out a knife from nowhere!” Lance yelled at Keith, who stood at the observatory room.

His tired voice came in from the speaker. “For the fifth time, I promise. I’m not trying to murder you, Lance. Are you ready now?”

“Uh, yeah!” Lance replied. His heart was racing, and he was sweating a lot. But there was no way he could say that to Keith without feeling like he’d lost some unnamed challenge. But losing to the bot after the intensive training with Keith would also equally feel like a loss. And he’d feel like a huge letdown to Keith, who had worked so hard to help him. Keith had taken his time out to help him after all, and Lance really appreciated that.

He bounced on the balls of his feet as the floor a few metres away opened up, and the training bot rose up slowly. Nervous, he gulped and shook his hands. The floor clicked into place, and Lance lowered himself into an appropriate stance. The bot got into position as well. Then, a countdown sounded through the speakers. “Three. Two. One. Begin.”

The bot’s light bulb shone red, and the bot darted forward. At that moment, several things happened so rapidly, one after another, that they felt almost simultaneous.

First, there was a loud voice in his head that yelled wordlessly, but in absolute fear. As if a part of Lance saw something else beyond the training.

Then, he felt his lungs burn. His skin was stretched taut and about to rip apart.

And he couldn’t move. Despite everything that Keith had practiced with him, his body would not budge. He was frozen in fear, but the fear was not his own.

Next, the bot gripped onto Lance by his forearm and shoulder. With a twist, Lance was flipped.

The moment he hit the floor, his body burst aflame. His skull was pushed against the skin of his scalp and tears sprang to his eyes. Lance let out a sob as his hands flew to his head, gripping his hair and rolling in agony.

Yells followed after. It was Keith, his voice full of alarm and apprehension. But it wasn’t just him. There was also a deep rumbling roar of pain.

Lance heard the bot rushing at him and swiped his hand at it, slamming it down. He flinched at the whirr of the bot shutting down.

After a brief second, the pain subsided, but his nerves were still tingling from adrenaline and fear. His heart was still thumping in his chest and he panted heavily. “What the—”

Lance’s hand flew to his throat. What was that? His voice was impossibly deep and rubbly. That was when he made another discovery, his throat was covered with fur.

No, his entire body was.

He had short brown fur. The paw crushing the bot was the size of its chest. And there were black claws, razor-sharp. They dug into the bot, which sparked and twitched before dying.

“Oh my g–” Lance’s paw flew to his mouth. Hearing that voice terrified him. Caught between wanting to scream and never wanting to hear that voice ever again, he could only choke on his own breath.

_I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry, Lance!_

“Who’s that?” he roared. He whipped around to scan the room, and his gaze fell on Keith, who stood frozen at the doorway. He looked so small with his eyes wide with fear. Lance’s stomach sank like a rock in water. “K-Keith?” his monstrous voice growled out.

Keith recoiled and seized his Bayard, yelling, “What did you do to Lance? Where is Lance?!” His voice cracked at Lance’s name.

Lance tried to get up. “Wait! No! Keith, it’s me! I-I’m Lance!”

The Bayard was activated and pointed in Lance’s direction. “Don’t you dare take a step closer,” Keith growled, gripping his sword.

A noise of distraught spilled out of Lance’s chest as he looked at his paws again. They were powerful. They could crush a bot. Who knew what they’d do to Keith.

He backed away and gripped his elbows, hugging and restraining himself at the same time. “Keith, I-I won’t come near. I promise I won’t come near. I don’t want to h-hurt you.” He shook as his breaths hitched multiple times, threatening to dissolve into sobs.

_I’m so sorry, Lance. I really didn’t mean to do this. I’m really sorry._

Keith was hesitant now. “Wait… What do you…” He steeled himself and raised his sword higher. “Where is Lance?” he yelled threateningly.

“I’m Lance! I don’t–” Lance hiccuped. “I don’t know what just–” His back hit the wall, and his breath stuttered. He dug his claws into his arms. “S-something happened. I don’t know, Keith.”

_I’ll bring you back. I’ll bring you back. Please tell him to wait for a while. Please, please, please. I’m so sorry. I really am so sorry._

“Th-There’s a voice in my head,” Lance managed to say between his hiccups. “It said to wait for a while. It said it’ll bring me back.”

The black paladin’s grip on the bayard tightened. “Who?”

“I-I don’t know. There’s this voice in my head. Please, Keith.” Lance didn’t know what he was pleading for. His heart was beating fast, and he was on the verge of tears.

He just wanted it all to stop.

Keith lowered his sword slowly and nodded.

_Thank you._

“I-it thanked you.”

_And you too, Lance._

“Oh, uh…” Lance’s breath hitched when he felt his bones crack. “What is-”

_You’re turning back. Don’t be scared. I know it’s scary. I’m really sorry about this. I really am. I really am._

Lance felt the fur in his body shift beneath his armour. His chest tightened, and he felt as though he was being squeezed. Then, his eye level slowly fell as his back slid down against the wall. Soon, within less than twenty seconds, Lance was back. His legs gave way, and he collapsed into a sitting position, shivering like a drenched puppy.

 _I didn’t want it to become like this. I didn’t want you to find out this way. I am so sorry,_ the voice said. With his head now clearer, Lance could feel the remorse in those words, but he couldn’t find it in himself to respond.

Keith took several seconds before he approached, even then, his bayard was still activated, afraid Lance would suddenly morph back into a monster and rip him apart without warning. Lance understood that. He knew he was dangerous now. Some volatile monster. He’d be afraid too.

Still, it hurt. It hurt to see the apprehension on Keith’s face and his shaking tense arms, threatening to drive his sword through Lance if he had to. Especially when all Lance wanted now was to have someone hold him tight.

“Lance,” Keith started. “A-are you…? W-was that real?”

“Wha— Dude, what kind of question–” Lance let out a huff. Classic Keith — always a little disorientating. “Well, it felt way too real. Did it look real to you?”

Keith’s eyes were wide as he nodded gravely.

“Then, I guess it is,” Lance said wryly.

Silence stretched between the two boys. That was real. Lance had transformed into some kind of monster. And they were both still trembling.

With his big soulful eyes, Keith looked at the red paladin and asked, “Then, uh... a-are you still Lance?”

Lance’s face fell and he let out a heartbroken sigh. “God, I hope so.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoop! Its the end! 
> 
> Also i havent finished s8 and ive alr seen so many spoilers and complaints but hhhhhh i'll prob still finish it in the end because im alr one season away from the end so might as well lollllll. After that i'll just heal via fanfic reading if its rly that bad hahahahhaha 
> 
> Alright, till the next chapter byeeeee (im working hard i swear urkkkk)
> 
> Edit: Also, a too late warning but i like making innuendos and stupid awkward moments cos im immature like that so like uhhhhh yeh have ur fill i guess


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet ~~the parasite~~ Vree

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof i cant believe I procrastinated this much ;-; Also, I just did a refining of the plot annd uhhhhh it just grew by like.... 6 chapters???? im??? so??? screwed??? I've never written anything this long seriously before and uhh ((im srs when i say this is a huge ass feat for me please support my sed writing ass))
> 
> Special thanks to lunasloveliess and oorubixoo for beta reading this :D AAAA
> 
> Anyway, hope yall enjoy meeting Lance's new friend.

The walls of the quarantine room were pristinely white, and the room smelled clean. It wasn’t hospital-clean, or Galran-jail-clean. It was  just neat, l ike a new untouched bedroom. There was a large glass pane that let Lance see  into the room next to his. Below it was a speaker and microphone, so Lance assumed this was going to be the mode of communication he was going to use if the team wanted to speak to him while he was still in quarantine. 

He wondered if he could ask Allura to turn on the air-conditioning. But there was no communication button anywhere so he probably couldn’t activate the communicator on the wall from the inside. He rolled over onto his other side, and onto the side of the bed that had yet to accumulate his body heat. He had dumped the blanket onto the floor because it was making him heat up way too quickly. But not before inspecting it and counting the number of flowers, petals and Altean bee-sparrow-rabbit hybrids (Sparabbees!) printed on it. 

What? Was Lance bored? Oh, no, not particularly. Why would you say so? (Yes, he was dying of boredom.)

He’d been in here for god- knew -how-long with nothing to do. Immediately after his body checks in the cryopod, he was sent here to wait for the results. That was fair. Lance wouldn’t want a possibly rogue paladin running about the castle either. He also knew that the others would talk about this issue separately before coming to find  him,  although they did not mention a word of this. But it was probably a given. 

He sighed. This was the second time he was locked up in a windowless room with absolutely no stimuli.  This time, he had a bed though.  And possibly someone else with him. But it made no difference if that  _ someone _ refused to talk. 

“Hey, you,” Lance said aloud. “I know you’re there.”

No response.

“Helloooo?” He groaned. “Seriously, there’s no use hiding. You already revealed yourself! And I know you can hear me, alright?”

No response still.

Lance groaned and flopped onto his back. “Stop pretending you aren’t there! You either start talking or get out of my body right this instant.”

_ I’m sorry… But I can’t. Get out, I mean.  _

Lance startled. The voice  was finally talking to him! He tried to regain his composure. “W-Why not?”

_ I-I’m not really sure. Sorry. I’ve tried to but I seem to be… stuck. I-I don’t know why.  _ _ Leaving my host’s body _ _ was never an issue but I seem to be locked in by your tissues. I’m sorry,  _ the voice replied. 

“Wait,” Lance said. “So you’re a  _ thing _ ? With, like, a physical body and stuff?” 

_ Yes, I have a body. _

He let out a sigh. “That’s… less frightening than some spirit thingy existing in my head or something.” It sounded… less druid. 

_ I’m not the work of a druid. I assure you.  _

Lance bounced upright. “Okay. Wait. So you can read minds?” 

_ Well… yes, I can read my host’s mind.  _

Lance sighed and scratched his head. “Okay, how can I know that you’re telling the truth that you  aren’t druid? For all I know, you could be lying to me. ‘Cause it seems like this mind reading thing is pretty one-sided.”

There was a moment of silence before the voice said,  _ T-true. I don’t have concrete proof, but do you recall the dream you had? While you were in the so-called healing pod? _

That strange dream. “You were the alien in the jar? Everything was from your perspective, right?”

_ Yes. And everything you saw and felt is genuine.  _

“Oh, then are you…”

_ Yep _ . A very specific feeling was transmitted to Lance. If the voice could clear their throat, they would at this point.  _ The name is Vrizerain. But most call me Vree.  _

“Oh. Uh… I-I’m Lance.”

They chuckled.  _ I’m aware. But nice to meet you. Properly. _

Lance rubbed the back of his head. Vree seemed  kind of  polite and nice. Lance didn’t get any bad vibes from them and, for some reason, he felt inclined to believe in them. 

Maybe it was the fact that even though he couldn’t read Vree’s mind like they got to read his, he could still feel a slight bit of his emotion seep into his words. 

It really felt like Vree was just as confused and worried as Lance was about the situation. And their apologies felt sincere. Every word was spoken with care, like they were tiptoeing in a nursery during naptime. 

Or maybe it was the fact that he had seen the dream through Vree’s eyes. 

The momentary comfort of seeing their friend, Frivirion; the visceral fear of watching the druids enter, which could only spell danger; the genuine agony of… it all, expecting the same fate to eventually befall them. Lance realised that they weren’t meant to be shared. The memory was so  _ personal _ — the emotions so raw, it made Lance feel like an intruder. 

With those emotions echoing in his chest, Lance decided,  “I’ll trust you. For now.”

 

 

* * *

 

Lance wasn’t as bored as he was before, having someone to talk to for most of the remaining duration of his quarantine, but the door of the room next door opening was still a huge relief for him. He leapt off his bed and rushed to the glass pane in excitement. 

In came everyone, all looking tense. They closed the door behind them. Their mouths  moved,  but Lance couldn’t hear a word. They talked to each other for a while longer before Allura gave Coran a nod. Then, Coran fiddled with the control panel in front of the window pane on their side. The speaker crackled for a while before falling somewhat silent, save for the added ambient sounds from the other room, but otherwise, everyone remained quiet. Lance stared at the team, waiting for someone to speak.

It took a while before the silence was broken. 

“Hey, Lance,” Keith said. “Can you hear me?” He was the most calm in this situation. Somehow. 

“H-Hey. Yeah. You’re clear.”

“We’ve got some results,” Pidge said as she flipped through the pages of her folder. Her voice was rather soft, like she didn’t know how to speak to him now. Honestly, Lance couldn’t blame her. “We ran some checks and there’s this worm-like parasite in stuck in your spine.”

_ Parasite?!  _ Vree whined loudly in Lance’s head. 

“Your tissues seemed to have healed over it in an unusual way… Probably because of the healing pod.”

_ Oh… That… would explain why I’m stuck like this. _

Lance asked, “Is there a way to take the… well, parasite out?”

_ Lance! Not you too! _

“Surgery, maybe,” Hunk said. “But it’s going to be, like, really difficult considering how it’s practically attached to your spinal cord. Removing it might cause spinal damage. I mean, none of us here are medical  experts, so unless we’ve got a doctor, we don’t really know what to do.”

Lance winced. 

“We will try to find a surgeon who can remove the parasite,” Allura said. “But… we  shouldn’t get our hopes too high.”

_ Parasite again. Stop calling me that.  _

Bending down to Pidge’s height, Coran flipped through the folder in her hand. Pidge visibly cringed at the page  that Coran, who swiftly took out the piece of paper, had stopped at. “Here is the thing, Number 3,” Coran explained as he pressed the paper against the glass pane for Lance to look at, “the creature living in your spine now looks like this.”

Lance leaned into the glass and squinted at the picture. 

It was a grotesque black-and-white photo of a creature lodged between what looked like the bones and nerves of his spine. It looked like some kind of half-worm, half-spider thing. 

Coran lifted  the page off the glass slightly to point at the image of the parasite. “The creature is lodged between the disk of your vertebrae and entangled with some of your spinal nerves. It’s rather tricky, you see?”

_ That’s a whole lot of mess I’ve gotten into.  _

“You can say that again,” Lance said in response to both Coran and Vree. 

“We will be running one more test for you. But for that, we will require Princess Allura to enter your room,” Shiro said. 

Everyone on the other side was tensed up again. 

“We’ll be on guard,” Keith said, lifting his bayard up for Lance to see. “Just, um, don’t transform or attack Allura or something, and we’ll be fine, I think. She’s just coming in to check on your quintessence stuff. It shouldn’t hurt…” He glanced to Allura for affirmation, and when she nodded, he looked back at Lance. “ Can you do that?”

_ I suppose that’s fine…? If that’s really it,  _ Vree said.  _ Can we trust them? _

Lance smiled. They wouldn’t lie to him. “Okay, yeah. Allura can do her thing. No problem.”

Allura was let into the quarantine room. Everyone else was deathly still. “Hey, princess,” Lance said with a tiny wave. He chuckled nervously. “W-will this hurt by the way?”

“It should not,” Allura assured him. She raised her palms towards him and wrapped them around the crown of his head. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. Then, Lance and Allura began to glow a soft light. 

Allura slowly opened her eyes and revealed her glowing purple irises. The light  faded . “Your quintessence is still the same,” she said. 

“So Lance is still Lance?” Hunk asked, his hands clenched in front of his chest. 

“Yes. His soul has not been changed fundamentally.”

Everyone visibly relaxed with a sigh in unison. 

“I could sense the quintessence of another creature in your back, as expected. And its quintessence is intricately entangled with yours. Like a bond of some sort,” she continued. 

_ Like a telepathic one? _

Allura yelped and leapt back. 

“Princess!” Coran yelled. 

Keith charged in, pushing Allura behind him, as Hunk and Pidge followed behind. Eyes determined, they brandished their bayards at Lance, who raised his arms in surrender.

_ Maybe I shouldn’t have done that. Sorry.  _

“I’m half-convinced you’re doing these things on purpose,” Lance muttered bitterly. 

“W-Wait,” Allura said, gently nudging Keith away. “Lance, have you established a telepathic bond with the parasite?”

_ For the last time, I’m not a parasite… _ Lance could almost sense a pout in Vree’s voice. 

“Well, yeah.  And  Vree doesn’t really like you guys calling them a parasite,” Lance said. 

_ I can talk through  _ _ you,  _ _ so anyone with direct skin contact with you can hear what I say.  _

“Skin contact lets him talk to others apparently,” Lance explained. 

Tentatively, Allura placed a hand on Lance’s arm. “Like this?”

_ Yep! That’s right!  _

A frown creased Allura’s brow as she tried to process this new information. “H-How unusual,” she mumbled. 

“Wait, Princess Allura, you can actually talk to the  para— to the thing?” Shiro asked. 

Allura nodded.

“That sounds kinda gross. Talking to some worm thing, I mean,” Pidge commented. 

Before Vree could respond to that, Allura asked them, “Is speaking to multiple people possible?” 

_ Um… Yeah, I think so.  _

Allura seized the closest person, Keith, and made him hold Lance by the hand. “Say something.”

_ Um, hello again.  _

Keith blinked several times, surprised. “H-hello? I guess?”

_ And, Lance, I’ve been meaning to ask  _ _ this _ _ but what is this strange feeling in your chest whenever this— _

“Vree! Alright! Okay! Um! Uhhh...” a red-faced Lance shouted to interrupt Vree. “Anyone else want to try out this whole new concept of speaking to aliens through direct contact?”

Eventually, after much talking and convincing, everyone was in direct contact with Lance, who was weirded out by the number of hands on his arms. 

“You want to do a self-intro, Vree?” Lance asked. 

_ I am Vrizerain from Regeunde. Most call me Vree.  _

“Wait. Did you say you are from Regeunde?” Coran exclaimed. “But we visited the planet right after we rescued Hunk and Lance, and there was… no one left there.”

_ The Regeunders… are extinct now. Or at least,  _ _ they’re _ _ not on Regeunde  _ _ anymore _ _.  _

Coran sighed loudly. 

_ My kind are the Immarin, and I assume you don’t know of us. The Regeunders never found out about us either. We attach ourselves to other species so we can blend in with the Regeunders.  _

“So what I, um, transformed into,” Lance said. 

“But I thought Regeunders were small cats,” Keith said, turning to look at Coran. 

_ Are they? Well, they’ve been gone for ten thousand years. We don’t really know what they look like anymore. I’m sorry.  _

“Evolution?” Hunk suggested. “A lot can change in ten thousand years. Especially if the Galra  threaten the planet.”

Pidge nodded at the possibility. “Transformation is pretty useful if you are threatened. Essentially, Lance and this, um, Vree have a symbiotic relationship at the moment where the host, I assume, offers nutrients while the symbiont provides an alternative defense mechanism.”

_ That’s right. The amount of nutrients we can usually obtain outside of our host’s body is only enough for survival. We need a lot more if we aim to live longer and reproduce.  _

Lance paled. “Hold up—”

_ We clone outside of the host’s body, Lance.  _

“Okay, that’s a relief. You know, too many movies I’ve seen have these weird creatures being inside humans and bursting—”

“Lance,” Keith interrupted, “I beg you to stop. It’s kind of bad enough as it is right now.”

“Okie dokie. Yep. That’s probably a good idea.”

“How did you attach yourself to Lance?” Coran asked. “Surely not on Regeunde. They didn’t even get to reach that planet.”

“Long story short,” Lance replied, “Remember those cuts on my back? I landed on a pile of those, um, specimens, plus all the glass, and while I was like that, they kinda crawled in through the wound in my back.”

Pidge cringed. “Ugh, gross, gross, gross.”

“Well, it was only because of Vree that I could make it out of the ship. They helped me navigate through everything and stuff, apparently.”

“So what else can you do, uh, Vree?” Allura pressed. 

_ I can read Lance’s mind. And I know that he’s currently thinking of this movie called Alien. Specifically the part where this man’s chest— _

“I’m going to stop you right there,” Shiro said. 

_ Sorry. That’s fair.  _

“You can read his mind,” Hunk said. “As in, everything he’s thinking?”

_ Um… Yeah. It’s to facilitate efficient communication between me and my host.  _

“That is…” Allura pursed her lips. “That is rather dangerous… isn’t it? For us. It would be terrible if our information were to be leaked out.”

“We need that surgery asap,” Hunk said. “I don’t trust that parasite.”

Lance felt Vree’s discomfort like a itch in his chest.  _ Umm… Sorry but I- Well, I’m not a para— _

“Look here,” Hunk yelled, glaring at Lance’s back. “As far as I’m concerned you’re invading my best friend’s body. You’re a parasite. And, now, you’re even invading his own private life! I don’t care what the purpose of your mind reading is, it’s personal. We all have things we want to keep personal.

“Hey, Hunk,” Lance said, shrugging as best as he could with all the hands on his arms. “It’s not that—”

Hunk’s eyes darted upwards. “Lance, we don’t know this Vree friend of yours. You shouldn’t be accepting this so quickly. For all we know, this Vree creature can be dangerous. Letting anyone into your brain and thoughts is never a good idea.” He huffed. “And I assume that puma thing I saw was you?”

_ Well, um, yes— _

“And it wasn’t the lizard thing that killed the Galra either, was it? It was you, right?” Hunk continued. “That thing was dead after all. I bet you killed it too.”

_ You’re right agai— _

“I knew it! I knew it, knew it, knew it! That thing has been bothering me from  the beginning ! Do you guys not understand the danger of this?!”

Pidge was the first to pick up  on what Hunk meant. “Lance’s body was controlled without him knowing.”

A shudder ran through the rest of the team as Lance laughed nervously. “Hey, um…” 

Vree tried to explain,  _ I only have partial control over his body’s actions while in the transformed state. I can’t control a thing while he is, um, normal. And Lance was unconscious previously so I could control his body without a hitch. _

“Yeah,” Lance agreed quickly. “And Keith probably saw today that I had control over my own actions as well! You know, it’s like one person is using the trackpad and one person is using the mouse on the same laptop at the same time.”

“Lance, you knew about this?!” Hunk  breathed, outraged . “That thing used your body to… to kill all those Galra like that! Without you knowing a thing!”

“I-It can’t really be helped, right?” Lance smiled back in reassurance. “Besides, I was in mortal danger and stuff, so Vree actually saved me. Although I wished everything wasn’t done so brutall—”

Hunk cut him off. “Lance, this means there could be a next time when you are unconscious or sleeping or — I don’t know — and- and that thing can just use you to do whatever shady business it wants or even murder us! Do you understand that?”

_ I promise I won’t do that. I really don’t mean any harm,  _ Vree pleaded. _ We, Immarins, as a species are generally— _

Hunk groaned loudly and let go of Lance, refusing to hear another word from Vree. “As if we can just take your word for it. We’re not little kids. A pinky swear that you’ll do no harm isn’t going to convince us.”

Everyone was holding their breath. Their eyes were on Lance, as though pleading him to say something in response, because no one else knew what to say — even if they could muster the courage to speak up. 

“ Look, Hunk,” Lance’s voice was  gentle . “Vree’s just trying their best.”

“I’m just trying to protect you, Lance,” Hunk replied, looking at Lance earnestly. “And this team. We can’t risk it.”

“I get it,” Lance replied, voice firm now. “We’re all worried, but Vree’s scared too. And it’ll be difficult from here on out if we’re all super defensive and stuff.”

“ Lance, why do you trust it? What makes you think you can trust it?” Hunk shouted, punctuating his sentences with gestures. “Why aren’t you more wary?”

“H-hey,” Keith said, “Hunk.” He looked between the Red and Yellow Paladin, somewhat regretting speaking up. “I’m sure Lance has his reasons. Right?”

“Yeah.”  Lance stood his ground. “I may not be able to read Vree’s  mind,  but I can feel their emotions. I know that they are genuinely concerned and sincere. And, right now, you are hurting them.”

“Those so-called emotions,” Hunk said, air-quoting, “can be some way to dupe you, Lance. Did you even learn anything after Nyma tricked you?”

Lance gasped softly. 

“Do you want a repeat of that again? This time, it won’t just be your lion, Lance! You can’t trust this parasite!”

“But what else can I do but trust Vree?” Lance screamed. “Vree’s there and we can’t just get rid of them. Not unless I want to severely damage my spinal cord! You guys said it yourself! So all I can do is trust them and pray for the best. I’m scared too, okay? But what other choice do I have?”

Hunk’s eyes widened. 

“Oh! Or you could just lock me in a cryopod for the rest of my life until we can take them out,” Lance said, sarcasm dripping from his words. “You know, that way I won’t have any thoughts for Vree to  access, and there’s no way for them to do anything with my body. Would you like that instead?” His breath hitched as he realised what he had just said. “Oh. Oh no,” he breathed. “Oh god, Hunk. I-I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.”

“No,” Hunk said, holding his hands up. “You’re not wrong.” He rubbed his eyes  roughly with his palm  and let out an exasperated groan . “I’m out.  I’m out.” 

“God. I’m sorry, Hunk,” Lance stuttered out in alarm. He pushed everyone aside and seized his best friend, who froze. 

With bated breath, the world waited. Then, with gentle, warm hands, Hunk pried Lance’s fingers away from his arm. “Please just give me some space.”  With that, he left, closing the door behind him lightly. 

Everyone in the room stood still, not uttering a word. It was so unusual to see Hunk flare up like that, but it was even more unusual to see the two best friends yell at each other. It felt almost surreal to witness this. A bitter taste was left on everyone’s tongue. 

But Lance had it worst. His chest was aching with guilt, and his head was hot with anger, both at everything, and at himself. His lungs were searing with the urge to yell, yet he felt that he had no right to raise his voice any further. 

God. Why the hell did he have to yell and say things like that? Why did he have to be stuck with this wreck of a situation? 

The first thing to break the heavy silence wasn’t even a noise.

_ I’m really sorry. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh gosh this was difficult to write hahaha! I had to amend the way Hunk spoke and lots of stuff after the help of my wonderful beta readers ;-; (bless them this would flop without them AAAAAAA) Hunk is a difficult character for me to write for some reason (unfortunately/fortunately, he will appear a few more times so uhhhh good luck to me i suppose)
> 
> Anyway, things will get worse for me irl so updates are going to be wayyy more erratic than i'd like it to be. I hope yall will still stick through this with me haha! I'm trying my very best hahaha!

**Author's Note:**

> My writing schedule is rather erratic so please be patient with me! ;-;
> 
> Comments and kudos will be really encouraging and will pull me through with writing this fic so please give feedback! Alternatively, you could find me on tumblr [here](https://nyctolovian.tumblr.com)! I might post stuff there so follow me for updates!! Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
